Embedded Files
Module 2 : Analyzing Systems and Power Through
In several Ethnic Studies curriculum frameworks, "Systems and Power" or other similar titles are an early unit that follows foundational work understanding identity, community, and solidarity. In these units, students learn to think about how phenomena on the micro level (personal, community) that they explored early on reflect broader systems and their histories. Units in this vein include analysis of different systems of oppression (white supremacy, ableism, mysogyny, colonialism, etc.), as well as the forms of resistance that individuals, communities, and solidarity networks deploy to subvert them.
In this module, we will look at a few pedagogical practices that invite students to use their translingual repertoires to engage with organizations and individuals in their communities. Using language for student-driven and authentic interactions not only affirms the languaging practices and perspectives within students' communities, but also gives them opportunity to build on the knowledge from earlier units to deepen understandings of their communities and connect their observations and experiences to broader systems. This session we'll also think about how to expand students' communicative repertoires for specific academic purposes such as argumentation and explanation with evidence. It's worth noting that the three pedagogical arrangements described below are not mutually exclusive, and can complement each other within a unit or series of lessons. We'll also return to oral histories in Module 4.
To carry out ethnographic work, researchers immerse themselves in the day-to-day life of a community. The goal is to understand from insiders' perspectives the practices, values, beliefs, and understandings of a community. Students can use their full communicative repertoires to gain multiple and historicized perspectives on some of the places, traditions, events, or circumstances in their own communities.
Asset mapping invites students to (re)explore their communities, collecting input from community members and organizations, to document the strengths and needs of the community. Through physical mapping, students can also compare past and present to note how the community has changed, or can even imagine a more liberated future.
With oral history projects, students can use their full communicative repertoires to learn through interviews with community members or by listening to archived interviews. Students can learn about specific locations, practices, or events in the community, and can get perspectives of individuals that might run counter to dominant narratives or call attention to matters mostly ignored in media and textbooks.
Consider that all of these pedagogical arrangements require input from people outside the classroom. The easiest contacts are for students to work with their families, friends, and acquaintances. Greater depth can be attained if students are also supported in contacting local individuals and organizations that have deep roots in the community, such as libraries, activists, non-profits and other community organizations, neighborhood civic or social groups, archivists, and community elders. See below for some recent examples of community-based projects.
East Side Dreams exhibit at Martin Luther King Jr. Library (San José State University and SJ Public Library)
East Side Dreams exhibit at Martin Luther King Jr. Library (San José State University and SJ Public Library)
Additionally, this text can be a very helpful resource to gaining a more community-centered understanding of different sites and movements in the Bay Area.
Click HERE for this session's language development focus:
Supporting students' argumentation.
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